‘Morsi’s regime was an experiment of democracy’

With the situation in Egypt, do you think the country can still go back to democratic rule?We are still in the process of having democracy. We have not stabilised democracy and choose somebody that people will be happy with. During the last democratic experiment, which brought Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood as president, only […]

With the situation in Egypt, do you think the country can still go back to democratic rule?
We are still in the process of having democracy. We have not stabilised democracy and choose somebody that people will be happy with. During the last democratic experiment, which brought Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood as president, only 22 million out of 90 million people voted. Out of the 22 million only 11 million elected Morsi. So that was an experiment of democracy and we still waited a whole year for the result. The economy of Egypt in that one year deteriorated more than the 30 years period of former president Hosni Mubarak.
So the point is that the Brotherhood to which Morsi belongs had other intention beyond developing the country. The more the Morsi government had stayed, the more danger the country would have been exposed to.
The revolution in your country has generated a lot out cry from different people who described it as coup. What is Egypt stand on this understanding?
What happened in Egypt is a people’s desire to effect a change for the betterment of their society; it is a people’s coup. The people rejected the 30 years of Mubarak but when Morsi came, the people realized that the situation is getting worse and they said no, this is not what we want. The Brotherhood is a small group in Egypt which came and ruled in a fascist way. All the institutions of Egypt were being monopolized by this group and that really jeopardized and endangered Egypt’s position. So the people protested against the group and their will prevailed.
Egypt has been complaining of terrorism since the ousted of President Morsi. What is the situation now?
The Muslim Brotherhood are the ones attacking the people, the police and the army. The brotherhood has tasted power and they are dying for power again, but they are the ones terrorizing the majority of the population. The greater population does not attack each other because it is not a civil war.
So the brotherhood is attacking everywhere to make a point and this is what we are fighting now. If we stop them it will help not only Egypt but the whole region in order to stop fanaticism, extremism and bad interpretation of Islam. They put a very bad reputation on Islam and this is what we do not accept.
For leaders to tackle terrorism, first we have to make a lot of security cooperation and training in many ways. But the most important is to improve on the economic situation through reforms. When you improve the standard of living of the people, nobody will think of fanaticism or extremism because they will have something to take care of themselves. I think the best thing is to realize how economic development can be used to create jobs for these people.
Would the Muslim Brotherhood be allowed to participate in the transition process in Egyptian?
The Brotherhood does not want to engage in the democratic process, what they want is to take power. We have invited them to the 50- member committee studying the amendment of the Constitution. We have also invited them to do so many things like others who are already participating but they don’t want because they have certain ambitions which cut across the frontiers of the region not only Egypt.
So what they want is much more than developing Egypt. They have a way of discriminating against other people. The Brotherhood is not a big group that we should talk about, it is a small group that has always been underground, but we are going to control them. Egypt has been fighting for three years; the economy suffered but did not collapse. That means we have great institutions, great coordination, people are homogenous, and there is no factions between Christians and Muslims anymore. This is an opportunity to show how strong we are and our resolve to address the problems.
What is the level of the relations between Egypt and Nigeria?
Egypt- Nigeria relations have been cordial, the Nigeria/Egyptian business forum was held in Abuja last July. Egyptian companies work in Nigerian markets including Arab Contractors and Egypt Air among others. We are also trying to introduce ourselves culturally to Nigeria which adds up our relationship.
Egypt is one of the biggest countries in Africa. It is the second biggest population in Africa after Nigeria. Egypt is the cradle of civilisation which I consider the civilisation of Africa. It spanned thousands of years, which is why we should be proud of that civilisation.
All the colonial borders that came later are just borders. Africa is Africa. Now Egypt wants to spread its fruits of democracy. The people without anybody leading them came out on the streets and demanded democracy. We need to have our freedom. We need to live our lives.
This is something that everybody has to cherish and to respect because we want to have a decent, prosperous life. So the Arab Spring that sparked off in Tunisia is still continuing in Egypt and what Egypt has to say will prevail all over the region later on. So everybody is waiting for the success of our experiment, and to see how we are going to proceed because after that everybody in the region will follow.